Sunway Academic Journal 2, 55–65 (2005)

ISSUES IN E-LEARNING STANDARDS

KANENDRAN T. A.a
JOHNNY SAVARIMUTHU
B. V. DURGA KUMAR
Sunway University College

ABSTRACT

This paper will discuss the role of e-learning standards for implementing e-learning applications. We briefly
define and describe the issues related to e-learning standards to improve performance and availability of e-
learning content. We also describe the characteristics of standards important for maintaining high quality e-
learning contents. The various standards are analyzed and the degree of synergy between different standards
organizations is identified. We discuss the life cycle for e-learning standards, and the main types of standards to
enable the interchange of components in a learning system. The Malaysian experience is presented as a case
study.

Key words: Digital data, e-learning, standards, performance, high availability, quality.

INTRODUCTION

Successful companies select a few standards and enforce them strictly (Gates, 1995). As
the need for digital data becomes more ubiquitous, so does the need to provide efficient
mechanisms for distributing data designed according to e-learning standards. The so-called
standards are Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC), Instructional Management System
(IMS), Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL), Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE), Learning Resource iNterchange (LRN), and Sharable Courseware Object
Reference Model (SCORM). In reality, SCORM is not a standard but a reference model for
a suite of standards developed by other bodies. Usually, the content is loaded in the learner’s
Web browser, and the Learning Management System (LMS) resides on a remote server.
Unless the content and the LMS use the same language, syntax and vocabulary, they will
not be able to communicate. Standards also give assurance to buyers about interoperability,
the ability of the system or product to work with other systems or products without special
effort on the part of the customer. All contents that conform to an e-learning standard will
run equally well on all LMSs that conform to the same standard (Morrison, 2003).
To understand the passion for e-learning standards, one needs to understand the
underlying problems that necessitate the development of these standards. The learners
cannot easily find the course they need. Course authors find it difficult to combine content
and tools from different vendors. Course administrators cannot move courses, each with
hundreds of files, from system to system. Learners with disabilities need custom-developed
courses and can only communicate with the systems on which these courses were

E-mail: akanen@sunway.edu.my.
56 Kanendran T. A., Johnny S. and B. V. Durga Kumar

developed. Organizations are addressing these problems in several ways. They are
developing standards that promote building e-learning from reusable parts and that help
reduce dependence on individual vendors and products. One of the explicit goals of
standards is to allow the reuse of content at all levels: not just whole courses and online
materials, but smaller units as well (Horton and Kendall, 2003).
All standards have a development life cycle comprising a series of highly iterative and
time-consuming processes. It is possible that e-learning may embrace a de facto standard,
though to date there has been no universal standard. The specifications, guidelines and
recommendations are not standards unless a large number of people follow them.

ISSUES

There are several issues that need to be considered to decide when and how to integrate
standards into e-learning content.

Project

*Which standards apply to your project?

Standards that apply to the administrative systems LMSs and LCMSs (Learning Content
Management Systems) are basically the same as those for courseware: interoperability and
content package standards. The main purpose of these standards is the integration of
courseware and administrative systems. The same specifications that are relevant for
courseware also apply to administrative systems. The standards are AICC and SCORM
Run-Time Environment.

Product

*Which standards can add value to the finished product?

The AICC CMI (Computer-Managed Institution) specification and the SCORM Run-Time
Environment specification contain a data model. The SCORM version 1.2 data model is
based on the AICC CMI specification data model but has a reduced set of optional data
items and adds value to a product by using the AICC CMI specification. An LMS that offers
tracking for any of them is required to implement them in conformance with the
specifications. The LMS supports a particular optional data element and then takes the
appropriate action based on the element’s availability.

Workflow

*Which standards can make workflow more efficient?

The workflow process follows requirement, analysis and design, implementation, test, and
deployment. In the analysis and design stage the contents must follow specifications which
should increase the efficiency of the workflow. The standards are SCORM and AICC.
 Sunway Academic Journal 2, 55–65 (2005) 57

Reuse of Components

*Which standards allow reusability of components?

The most important characteristic of LOs (Learning Objects) is that they are designed to be
reused in different contexts. LOs can be used in many composite learning components. To
enable sharing and reusability, each LO needs a descriptive “packaging.” This packaging
provides information such as a description of the contents of the LO, its identifier, the
learning objectives it meets, its builder and the target location. It helps to locate an LO as a
particular product. The learning content is the product. It is enclosed in a package on which
its name and other details are printed. This information must be provided in a standard and
universally understood format. This problem is solved by the use of metadata (data about
data). Standards exist for two different models that describe the way in which courses are
constructed from LOs. One model forms part of the SCORM. The other model was
developed by the AICC (Fallon and Brown, 2000).

Applications

*How are standards incorporated into one’s work?

First, it is necessary to identify the area of application for content design. Then the proper
specification is selected for content packing in a particular application.

*Are standards really worth the trouble?

The reaction of some designers to the pitfalls in the standards’ life cycle is to ignore
standards altogether until they become accredited. The designers feel that the specifications
that exist today are not stable. It is certainly true that standards will develop further and
change over time. The adoption of AICC certification, AICC conformance, and SCORM
conformance by many major e-learning vendors is a good indication of how important the
vendors feel about standards.
The standards organizations want vendors, developers and designers to continue to
adhere to their specifications. This gives them the incentive to make transitioning from old
to new versions of specifications as easy as possible. Suppose that you follow one of today’s
standards for e-learning components that you purchase or develop and that by the time the
standard becomes accredited, 30% of it has changed. In this scenario, your e-learning
component will still be 70% compliant with the appropriate accredited standards. However,
if you ignore today’s standards, your components may be 0% compliant when the standards
become accredited (Fallon and Brown, 2000).

Identification

*Should one purchase tools that comply with standards or that make compliance easier?
Yes, this would reduce the learning curve and help to achieve smooth development of
software.
58 Kanendran T. A., Johnny S. and B. V. Durga Kumar

*Which standard should one follow first?

SCORM. As per a survey undertaken in Malaysia, many projects are designed using
SCORM (Aisrvatham, 2003). The reasons why SCORM is followed are:

a) SCORM has the following features: reusability, interoperability, ability to reduce

development time and cost, and ability to increase quality of content.
b) SCORM consists of overview, content aggregation and run-time environment.

*Who can guarantee compliance?

The developer can guarantee compliance of standards for his/her products because the
developer complies with standards in designing the contents.

*Would one build standards into the template and scripts that one uses in constructing the
content?
Yes. The templates are useful for developers or designers of content. Building in the
standards further reduces complications and improves efficiency in constructing the content.

CHARACTERISTICS

The development of e-learning standards to design and deliver e-learning content is

summarized as “DAMRAIN”—which stands for Durability, Accessibility, Manageability,
Reusability, Affordability, and INteroperability.

Durability

The LMS and LCMS must be able to accommodate minor changes to the contents and to the
application design without the need to redesign the e-learning system. Even if there are
major changes to the contents, the standards should enable the design of the e-learning
system to be consistent.

Accessibility

The LMS or LCMS must have the ability to access courses and learning objects through the
use of metadata and package standards, thereby allowing many learners to access learning
content stored remotely.
The metadata access specification is intended to make it possible to identify resources
that match a user’s stated preferences or needs. These preferences or needs would be
declared using the IMS LIP (Learner Information Package). The needs and preferences
addressed include alternative presentations of resources, alternative methods of controlling
resources, alternative equivalents to the resources themselves, and enhancements or support
required by the user. The specification provides a common language to identify and describe
the primary or default resource and equivalent alternatives for that resource.
 Sunway Academic Journal 2, 55–65 (2005) 59

Manageability

Manageability is the ability to track the learner’s use of the e-learning system and the
storage of the resulting data in an LMS or LCMS as a learning record accessible by both the
learner and management. The system should be able to package the learning objects so that
they can be managed for a large number of users.

Reusability

Reusability is the ability to design, store and manage learning content as small compatible
learning objects that can be used in combination over and over again as elements of
different courses. A curriculum is assembled from reusable courses, which are assembled
from reusable lessons, which are made of reusable pages containing reusable media
elements. These units are called reusable learning objects or sharable content objects. The
designer can reuse all components many times (Horton and Kendall, 2003).

Affordability

Affordability is to leverage standardized technologies to increase development productivity

and learning effectiveness while reducing cost (Fallon and Brown, 2000). If standards are
followed, integration with various software tools that follow the same standards will be
cheaper in both personnel and software cost. This will allow future development to be done
in piecemeal mode, reducing cost and making the development more effective. Affordability
is not only seen in monetary form but also in the best use of creative energy and time.

Interoperability

Interoperability allows the picking of the best designer, tools, content, and management
systems—and enables the replacement of any of them without having to redo the others. All
features and functions of content that conform to a standard can be used on any LMS that
conforms to the same standard. It is then possible to have content authored by different
vendors, using different authoring tools, running on the same LMS and exploiting all the
content features and functions; also, data can be shared between enterprise systems without
intervention (Morrison, 2003). The existing specifications that deal with courseware
interoperability are the following:

• AICC AGR 010, which references the AICC CMI specification.

• SCORM Run-Time Environment.

Figure 1 describes interoperability. The designers X and Y use certain tools to produce
learning objects that are self-contained, reusable modules of a project. The learning
management system can assemble a course by integrating these separate objects developed
by different designers using different tools (Horton and Kendall, 2003).
60 Kanendran T. A., Johnny S. and B. V. Durga Kumar

Course Object Tool

M 1 T1
A Designer-X
N
A 2 T2
G 1 2
E
M
E 4 3 3 T3
N
Designer-Y
T
4 T4

Figure 1. Interoperability

STANDARDS ORGANIZATIONS

Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC)

AICC was one of the first bodies to publish specifications for tracking and interoperability,
and their work was adopted by businesses outside the aviation industry. For years, AICC
specifications were the de facto e-learning standard. When vendors claim their products are
“AICC-compliant,” they actually mean that they have implemented some of the nine AICC
guidelines. Since different vendors can implement different guidelines, AICC compliance
does not ensure interoperability. The AICC content hierarchy also has three components:

• Course: The top level of the hierarchy, at which content is assigned to learners.
• Instructional block: An optional intermediate grouping of smaller learning units.
Instructional blocks can be nested inside one another to provide any number of
levels.
• Assignable unit: The AICC’s learning object (Fallon and Brown, 2000).

Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL)

This technology focuses on the following:

• Technology to deliver learning at a faster rate and at a lower cost.

• Standardization to enable interoperability.
• Learning objects to enable searchable and reusable content.

ADL’s strategy provides a focus for standards bodies by harmonizing their efforts in a
reference model called SCORM (Sharable Content Objects Reference Model). ADL
provides both a forum and a technology test bed for the integration of specifications. ADL
likes to think of SCORM as a super class, which treats each separate draft specification as a
 Sunway Academic Journal 2, 55–65 (2005) 61

separate class. Figure 2 shows how different standards groups have contributed to the
reference model.

SCORM

Overview Content Run-Time

Aggregation System

G H A B C D E F

Figure 2. The SCORM Overview

A: Metadata dictionary (from IEEE) B: Content packaging (from IMS)

C: Content structure (from AICC) D: Metadata XML binding (from IMS)
E: Data model (from AICC) F: Communication API (from AICC)
G: Technical specifications H: Guidelines

The model consists of three classes. SCORM is a “Super class” containing subclass-1,
which includes an overview of the ADL initiative, the rationale for the SCORM and a
summary of the technical specifications and guidelines contained in the remaining sections.
Subclass-2 (The SCORM Content Aggregation Model) contains guidance for identifying
and aggregating resources into structured learning content. Subclass-3 (The SCORM Run-
Time Environment) includes guidance for launching, communicating with, and tracking
content in a Web-based environment (Morrison, 2003).
SCORM assumes the existence of a suite of services called by either an LMS or an
LCMS. Most Web documents consist of hyperlinks from one page to another. In SCORM
the LMS, the main element, knows what is to be delivered to the learner. SCORM
standardizes how to start and track directed learning, and the behavior and logic of complex
learning, so that content can be reused, moved, searched for and reassembled. SCORM
supports e-learning that enables interoperability, accessibility and reusability of e-learning
content. SCORM continues to update and expand the scope of the specification. The
SCORM content hierarchy includes three types of components shown in Figure 3.
62 Kanendran T. A., Johnny S. and B. V. Durga Kumar

Content Aggregation Sharable Content Object Asset

(a group of learning (the SCORM’s learning (a small single-purpose
resources) object) learning resource that
could be used in multiple
contexts)
Figure 3. SCORM Content Hierarchy

ARIADNE

ARIADNE (Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring Distribution Networks for Europe)

was one of the pioneers in developing specifications for e-learning metadata and reusability.
It describes its goals thus: “The project focuses on the development of tools and
methodologies for producing, managing and reusing computer-based pedagogical elements
and telematics-supported training curricula. Validation of the project’s concept is currently
taking place in various academic and corporate sites across Europe” (Morrison, 2003).

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

The IEEE is the leading authority in technical areas. It is involved in e-learning standards
through its Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) whose mandate is to
develop accredited technical standards, recommend practices, and guides for learning
technology. The LTSC provides independent evaluation of draft specifications developed by
bodies like AICC and IMS, with the ultimate aim of certifying a specification, followed by
publishing it as a new standard. The IEEE LOM (Learning Object Metadata) standard
specifies the syntax and semantics of LOM required to fully and effectively describe a
learning object. The main focus area is on the development, deployment, maintenance, and
interoperation of e-learning components and systems. The IEEE/LTSC LOM specification
was derived from work done by the IMS and ARIADNE. This specification, which forms
the basis of the current IMS Learning Resource Metadata Information model, is included in
SCORM. Ultimately, most of the standards developed by IEEE/LTSC will be advanced as
an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard.

Instructional Management System (IMS)

IMS produces open specifications for locating and using e-learning content, tracking learner
progress, reporting learner performance, and exchanging records between administrative
systems such as LMSs. IMS specifications that have been adapted for use in SCORM
version 1.2 are the following:

• The IMS Learning Resources Metadata Specification (LRMDS) defines a method

for describing learning resources so that they can be located using metadata-aware
search software.
 Sunway Academic Journal 2, 55–65 (2005) 63

• The IMS Content & Packaging Specification (CPS) defines how to create reusable
LOs that can be accessed by administrative systems such as LMSs and LCMSs.
• The IMS Question & Test Interoperability Specification (QTIS) addresses the need
to be able to share test items and other assessment data across different
administrative and assessment systems.
• The IMS Learner Profiles Specification (LPS) defines ways to organize learner
information so that administrative systems such as LMSs and LCMSs can be more
responsive to the specific needs of each user.
• The IMS Simple Sequencing Specification (SSS) defines a method for specifying
adaptive rules that govern the sequence in which reusable LOs are to be presented to
the learner (Fallon and Brown, 2000).

IMS has been a pioneer in e-learning standards. It makes contributions in the areas of
metadata and content packaging. The IMS metadata standards are firmly rooted in modern
Internet technologies such as XML. The main purpose of these specifications is to provide
comprehensive standards relating to content structuring.

Learning Resource iNterchange (LRN)

LRN is a commercial implementation by Microsoft of some e-learning specifications.

Specifically, LRN supports the IMS Content Packaging d1.1 and Metadata 1.2
specifications; it also supports the SCORM 1.2 reference model.

RELATIONSHIPS

The IMS Learning Resources Metadata Information Model used in the SCORM was based
on work done by both IMS and ARIADNE. The SCORM Run-time Environment includes
the API (Application Programming Interface) developed by ADL and the AICC. Although
each organization focuses on its own area, they are all working toward the common goal of
attaining a set of internationally accredited standards for e-learning. The degree of synergy
among these standards organizations is manifested by the fact that many of the individuals
who participate in the various committees and working groups do so within two or more of
the standards organizations simultaneously (Fallon and Brown, 2000).

STANDARDS LIFECYCLE

All standards have a development lifecycle comprising a series of highly iterative and time-
consuming modules The lifecycle starts with project needs and research and development
concepts. By exposing these notions to interested consortia, draft specifications can be
developed. When there is consensus about the specifications, they are tested in laboratories
and test beds to see whether the theory works in practice. Draft specifications should also be
exposed to the market. Once there is evidence that the agreed specification works, the test
64 Kanendran T. A., Johnny S. and B. V. Durga Kumar

results, in the form of a reference model are sent to a standards organization for third-party
validation, followed by accreditation. Once a standard has been accredited, a global
standards organization like ISO can promote it to an approved international standard
(Morrison, 2003).

QUALITY ASSURANCE STANDARDS

Quality assurance concerns the design and quality of digital content from the viewpoints of
subject matter and instructional design. Quality assurance ensures that e-learning content
has certain characteristics or was created using certain established processes. E-learning
technology is sufficient to ensure a free exchange of reusable learning objects. Quality
standards ensure that objects are not only reusable but usable in the right place. Quality
assurance standards can help customers select the right products. The availability of e-
learning content from the customer’s perspective is assessed by the lessons, course details
and exams, which must be designed in compliance with universal standards.

THE MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE

In 2003, the Malaysian scenario indicated that compliance with SCORM specifications by
educational institutions was approximately 54% (Aisrvatham, 2004). Another survey
conducted in 2004 by Multimedia University indicated that the percentage of educational
institutions using SCORM-based content was 64% (Aisrvatham, 2004). Thus, it is clear that
SCORM is gaining popularity in Malaysia as the e-learning standard. The Malaysian
Institute of Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS) is preparing e-learning standards for
Malaysia. These specifications will be implemented in the near future as the Malaysian Grid
for Learning (MyGfL). One of the objectives is to develop e-learning standards to ensure
conformance to and adoption of best practices in learning content and systems. INTAN
(Institut Tadbiran Awam Negara or Institute of National Public Administration) also follows
SCORM specifications for the implementation of e-learning for all government employees.
The pilot implementation is expected to be completed in March 2005 (Aisrvatham, 2004).
The Asian E-Learning Network (AEN), which comprises 13 countries and is based in Japan,
has agreed to adopt SCORM specifications. Malaysia is part of this network.

CONCLUSION

The e-learning market will continue to develop rapidly, especially in content design. There
are several standards available but not many have adopted these specifications. This paper
has provided guidelines for users to select the standards for their e-learning solutions.
It is pertinent that the issues discussed be carefully considered. Furthermore, these
issues need to be analyzed and solutions found. Market forces should not be ignored. The
importance of e-learning standards in the implementation of an e-learning solution is vital
for long-term success and to optimize cost.
 Sunway Academic Journal 2, 55–65 (2005) 65

Most of the respondents to the survey conducted in Malaysia (Aisrvatham, 2004)

favoured SCORM over the other standards, with respect to most of the criteria and
characteristics. It is clear that SCORM has taken into account other specifications such as
IMS, IEEE LTSC, and AICC. Different standards organizations have different focus areas,
thus comparison will be difficult. Today’s e-learning market favours SCORM. Thus
SCORM will have a greater chance to be adopted as the international specifications for e-
learning.

REFERENCES

Aisrvatham, D. (2004), Development of e-learning in Malaysia. A paper presented at Asia e-Learning

Network Conference, Japan, December 15–17, 2004.
Fallon, C., & Brown, S. (2000). E-Learning Standards. London: St. Lucie Press.
Gates, B. (1995). The Road Ahead. New York: Viking Penguin.
Morrison, D. (2003). E-Learning Strategies. Chichester: John Wiley.
Horton, W., & Kendall, W. (2003). E-Learning Tools and Technologies. New York: Wiley.